$0 to $27K in 1 Year From a Remote Island

Julien Collet is the founder of Scheduled.so, a tool that lets you schedule LinkedIn posts from Notion.

In a recent post, Julien shares that he launched the app “in August 2023” and took it from €0 to €25k ($27K) in revenue in one year 💰

I’m pretty sure though that he wrote 2023 as a typo. Seems he actually launched the app in August 2022, judging by…

• His website looking pretty much the same last January
• The @scheduled_so account on X being around since Dec 2022

😕 Julien’s previous attempt to build an app didn’t go so well…

Two months before launching Scheduled, I started Split, a Buffer copycat… I introduced this first app to a handful of friends, but they all asked the same question: “How is it better than X?”…

After two months, I trashed it and started using Buffer.

💡 While using Buffer, he came up with the idea for Scheduled…

I’m a fan of Notion for centralizing and organizing my content ideas. I used Buffer solely to schedule and publish on LinkedIn, but found myself repeatedly copying and pasting…

Eventually, I had to maintain content in Notion and Buffer…

Maintaining content on two platforms and the long-term switching between them was frustrating. It was a mental load I wanted to eliminate.

This became the first problem that led me to use my product.

Today, in developing my product, I stick to this principle. I identify repetitive habits or time-wasting activities.

A common problem isn’t always obvious, yet there are many.

Julien got traction by offering a lifetime deal (LTD) on the app…

LTDs are often underestimated compared to the pursuit of MRR [Monthly Recurring Revenue].

Without an established fan community, it’s challenging for a first product to become profitable with MRR quickly.

LTDs were a great way for me to generate cash, build a fan base, and sustain the first year.

In my first year, 70% of the €25k revenue came from LTDs.

That works out to about €17,500 ($19,000) 🤑

Utilizing no-code tools helped Julien build fast…

No-code was a great way to simplify the workload in the long run…

Initially, 70% of Scheduled’s backend was managed by n8n [a Zapier alternative]…

The major effort is in building the right workflow. Once it’s running, the maintenance cost is very low.

To end with, he says…

In a saturated market, differentiation captures attention and makes people curious. If the first people you talk to ask, “How is it different from X?” you’re not different enough.

Funnily enough, while researching this story I came across a similar product called Notion Social that’s making $750/month.

And we previously featured a Notion plugin that’s making $8,400/month.

So it seems there are plenty of opportunities to build tools for or on top of Notion 👍

One more thing about Julien: he describes himself as “a French solopreneur based in Reunion Island” 🇷🇪

That’s a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mauritius, with a population of ~800,000.

👉 3-minute video to give you a feel for it…

What a place to build a business.

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